Vietnam: Social media activist handed down long-term sentence after trial with no lawyer (Update)
Event- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 20, 2021
- Event Description
On October 20, the People’s Court of Ninh Binh province convicted Facebooker Tran Quoc Khanh of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to six and half years in prison and two years of probation for his Facebook posting regarding the country’s issues. Mr. Khanh was likely forced to give up legal assistance and he had no lawyers during the trial. Unlike other political trials, his family was allowed to attend the trial and they reported that he did not confess guilty. Mr. Khanh was arrested in April prior to the parliament’s election shortly after he declared to run for a seat in the country’s highest legislative body but is considered as a rubber-stamp by international political observers.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Denial Fair Trial
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online
- Right to fair trial
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
Case shared by Vietnam Human Rights Defenders
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 20.2549556493222
Longitude: 105.97601416182468
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 20 October 2021, Tran Quoc Khanh, social media activist held in pre-trial detention, was sentenced to 6 and a half years imprisonment over repressive anti-state propaganda provisions for his online activities by a court in Ninh Binh, Viet Nam.